‘Outlander’ Season 3, Episode 4 Recap: A Merciful Heart

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Hannah James as Geneva Dunsany in “Outlander.”CreditCreditAimee Spinks/Starz

By Genevieve Valentine

Oct. 1, 2017

Season 3, Episode 4: ‘Of Lost Things’

If you placed any bets on what “Outlander” would do with Jamie once he was on parole, I hope you put all your chips on Full Romance Novel. In this week’s episode, the pot veritably boils over with the sort of scenery chewing that makes it feel as if it covered as much ground as a feature film. It wasn’t particularly resonant, but sometimes a show just wants to take a breather, set up new pieces, have some fun and wink at the audience.

If nothing else, this episode is an exercise in good casting; even characters with only a line or two manage to be memorable. And Geneva (Hannah James) is the type of guest star who shines in episodes like these. Haughty, cold, very good at getting information from drunk men and blackmailing sober ones, we understand how formidable she could be, and what a shame it is that her only chance at scheming is forcing Jamie into bed.

There’s a lot going on here. It’s no accident Geneva bears such a striking resemblance to Claire. It’s also no accident that Jamie’s air with her is more frustrated than it has been in a while; there’s a fun-house-mirror quality to their standoffs. Given all that, their bedroom scene has to walk a fine line — Geneva is committing essentially the same crime as Black Jack Randall has, but her motives have to be sympathetic enough for both Jamie and the audience to forgive her. James plays Geneva as ruthless but human, and makes the most of this surreal inversion of Jamie’s wedding night, where this time, Jamie’s the powerless one without much recourse. (And the shots of Geneva coolly posed in her ruffled nightdress beg comparison with a hung-over Claire in a translucent shift that night.)

The situation is, at the very least, fraught. But this episode isn’t interested in making Jamie suffer, and so it tries to sidestep any trauma or resentment. He gruffly counsels Geneva about what love really is and then moves on. And it’s a relief to see him steady, befriending Geneva’s more personable sister, Isobel (Tanya Reynolds); growing closer to John Grey; and finding himself at home for the first time in a long time. By the time he’s helping raise his secret son, William, his heart seems positively light.

For a show that spent more than a season in Claire’s shoes, it’s interesting to watch what happens to the main couple when they’re apart. Jamie increasingly functions as the show’s center of gravity, while Claire (after some interesting early struggles) has flattened. Her own daughter blithely admits that Claire was never fully present for her childhood. We have to take that on faith, since the show blitzed past two decades for Claire while Jamie was finding his footing over a mere handful of years. But if that’s true, Claire’s been living a tragic and frustrating half-life while Jamie has gotten the story’s real weight.

It’s fascinating to see how the show rates Jamie’s value in the absence of Claire, and vice versa. Claire without Jamie is a wraith. At the same time, Jamie’s narrative currency is so high right now that both his employer and his employer’s wife pull him aside separately to forgive him his Jacobite past and offer help. Jamie’s narrative currency is so high that coercing him into bed means bearing him a beloved child. Jamie’s narrative currency is so high that his sexual offer to John Grey is a meta-offering that leaps off the screen: He knows he’s the most valuable thing this show has to offer.

Part of the problem here is that, once Frank is gone, there’s nobody interesting left in Claire’s sphere. So far, Brianna is lifted from an L.L. Bean ad, and Roger exists for exposition and moral support. This means Claire won’t be leaving much behind, but it also means her story line has no real stakes left. Another journey through the stones is inevitable. Until then, we’re marking time.

Thinking about this, the idea that Claire is the villain of the first act of this season gains traction. She has fought Frank and herself. With Brianna already resigning herself to the worst (“I’m afraid of losing her”), it’s fascinating to wonder what will happen when Jamie and Claire find each other. We’ve seen how he’s lived — he’s begun to heal and make new connections. Claire has a sham marriage and a distant daughter. What does love look like, after this? Jamie thinks he knows. We’ll see.

Other Gossip

• A priceless line after Jamie suggests that perhaps Geneva needn’t coerce him into having sex with her: “No. I’m doing this for myself.” (Feminism!)

• Geneva’s and Isobel’s costumes are great. Isobel’s dresses are muted but a little fussy — embroidered mitts, elaborate floral stomachers, and other marks of a lady’s trying to atone for being “plain.” Geneva’s dresses are relatively stark; everyone is aware her face is the draw, and her clothes manage to seem vaguely resentful of it.

• It’s interesting how Fiona and Isobel, two women who pine for uninterested men, are framed as vaguely pathetic. (Geneva escapes this by being an imperious villain instead.)

• “Geneva told me they had never shared a bed.” Rookie mistake, Geneva.

• “This is what Mrs. Graham warned me about — spending my life chasing a ghost.” Somewhere, Frank’s undead body lurches incredulously out of the grave.

• In case you were wondering whether Claire found her calling in medicine, she chose not to return to the States for an important surgery because she was looking for Jamie. Yikes.